NINE CAVALIER KING CHARLES SPANIELS LEFT TO DIE IN CAR
A physician working at East Cooper Hospital in Mount Pleasant, S.C. has been arrested and charged with nine counts of mistreating animals after he left nine dogs to die in his car on Monday.
Charles A. Bickerstaff, 64, of James Island was arrested after leaving nine Cavalier King Charles Spaniels locked in his car for three hours.
The animals were locked in crates for three hours – with no food or water. All nine died.
News of Bickerstaff’s arrest was first reported by Andrew Knapp of The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier .
Sad, isn’t it? Especially seeing as this guy is a doctor. Of all the people who should have known better, right?
FITS founding editor Will Folks has written previously regarding the epidemic of child deaths due to “vehicular heat stroke,” noting that “there’s a disproportionately high number of those deaths occurring in South Carolina.”
So tragic … and so unnecessary.
40 comments
I heard they were in a car outside a Chinese restaurant.
Well Done.
I prefer mine medium — unless they are ‘hot dogs’.
Wonder what he was thinking when he did this?
“I hate those fucking dogs!” ?
I shouldn’t be laughing at this but that’s funny right there! +10
The best jokes are the ones you “shouldn’t” be laughing at. Don’t let PC society ruin a good time.
:)
Also, it’s sad for the dogs, but should this man really go to jail for being an idiot over dogs? Don’t our benevolent masters in charge have better things to do?
I think we have an obligation to do something to idiots who cruelly mistreat animals but a hefty fine would be sufficient.
I think the embarrassment of walking around your dog club after having killed nine of them is probably worse than a fine.
I’ve got enough obligations on my plate. (ok, bad pun)
Yeah. This story is just weird.
Thanks Obama
Thanks Nikki.
WTF does this have to do with Obama?
It’s so unbelievable that a veterinarian would do such thing. Was he drunk or on drugs?
He isn’t a vet.
There was a doctor that had been having sex with a number of his patients, and he started to feel guilty. Then a little voice inside his head said, “You’re not the only doctor that screws his patients.” That made him feel a bit better. Until another little voice said, “But the other doctors aren’t veterinarians.”
LOCK THE SON-OF-A-BITCH IN THE SAME CAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know this sounds harsh, but for certain folks publically — (1) horse whip them (2) stockade for humiliation (3) tar and feather them.
Which brings up the Constitutional language prohibiting “cruel AND unusual [my emphasis] punishment”.
Horsewhipping and tar & feathering may be cruel, but they are NOT unusual in the history of this country.
I have always thought that the appropriate punishment for forcible rape is for the “aggrieved male” (father, brother, husband, fiance`, etc.) to administer 40 lashes (or more) to the “found guilty” accused, and then have salt rubbed into the lash marks. Cruel, yes (but so is rape). Unusual, no. We have been there, done that, especially naval punishment before and after the “recent unpleasantness” of 1776.
I totally agree with your comments.
Family members administer punishment – immediate, public, no drain on prison facilities, and the perpetrator will stay out of your neighborhood…
Were dogs considered 3/5’s as well? Does a houndstooth for a tooth count too?
Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppies go for about $450-600 a pop, if he couldn’t afford to keep them or was just sick of their yapping, PuppyFind .com is ready when you are. http://www.puppyfind.com/puppies+for+sale/cavalier+king+charles+spaniel.php
Hope there is more to the story…like someone was supposed to get the dogs or something. Tragic, but hard to believe it was on purpose.
Wrong. Try $1200-$1500each.
There’s a bunch on puppy find in the $500 range.
As the owner of a King Charles that could easily be a twin of the one pictured, I am appalled. How any sick son of a bitch could leave any living thing (child, dog, cat etc.) locked in a car for a prolonged period of time is beyond me. I agree with “Aitkencounty”.
He is active in the state Cavalier club, and in the national Cavalier show circuit. Just can’t figure why he had nine dogs in crates crammed into an Explorer. Were they rescues, or his personal dogs? Is he a breeder? These dogs are known for health issues (heart murmurs, for one) and are delicate. They are also very expensive. A pup with a clean health report and good bloodlines from a reputable breeder can cost up to $1200. Anyway, of all people…he knew better. I’m betting those dogs had been in there longer than three hours. Just so sad.
$1200 is the cost from a backyard breeder. These dogs cost over $2000 from a reputable breeder. I don’t believe they bred; just showed. Obviously this guy is a complete moron. Even if he was called in on an emergency while out with the dogs, you call someone on the way to the ER and tell them to COME GET THE DOGS.
These were his personal show dogs.
Perhaps they were his wife’s dogs, and he didn’t like them, and decided this is one way to get out of being involved in showing. Or perhaps it is merely a subconscious action or lack of action….who knows. Very very very sad.
Sad story … has gone viral. Its on Drudge Report. Liberal Post and Courier in Charleston getting hits from Drudge. Yeah …. lead them to a Lindsey Graham rag … lol
Sounds to me like a good excuse to go out and kick the shit out of someone. Curb stomping would probably be appropriate for him.
TBG puts this down to lapse of judgement/memory.
Very sad…but felony charges that could result in 45 years in prison.
Pu-lease!
PRO TIP:
Backyard. Shovel.
Frank Lloyd Wright:
“A doctor can bury his mistakes, but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines.”
Was this guy absent when they taught that in Med School?
I really don’t understand the severe penalties for this kind of crime. If I kill a cow for meat, I get paid, not punished. If I clearcut 1,000 acres and pave it over, effectively reducing the wildlife population, if not outright killing thousands of animals, I get paid millions. But if I kill a dog, I’m a criminal?
Well, you gotta start somewhere.
You don’t understand animal cruelty charges?
When you kill that cow, are you going to put it in a small steel building to die from a heat stroke? Maybe skin it alive? Maybe torture it until it dies? You don’t think these people should be punished?
Glad he’s not my doctor! Any doctor who doesn’t know you can’t leave dogs in a hot car can’t be of much good use to anybody. If he is married, I bet he’s getting divorced! On the other hand, if he really is a dog lover and just stooped, I feel sorry for him, since he is probably suffering in his remorse.
This doctor had these dogs with him everywhere. This was a serious lapse of judgment or a very serious human emergency at the hospital that took his whole concentration. I am sure he is devastated at the loss of his companions.
I am sure that he was distracted, and perhaps got a call shortly after arriving there, but at no point when it came to putting his keys down, his bottled water, glancing around, walking away and having the dogs barking at him, (as they undoubtedly did), wouldn’t it dawn on him that he had them in the van? I assume he will absolutely kiss his show competition life goodbye. Dog shows are prevalent for rumor and innuendo, and this isn’t like losing your dogs due to fire, or a hurricane, this is losing your dogs because of your own negligence. I do not blame the others for denigrating him. This was unbelievably cruel, undeserved, and it’s a shame that he won’t get time for this, because he should. (He has money enough to get a great trick lawyer.)
Plus, where was their mother, didn’t she realize he was in work and had the dogs? This would not have happened in my house. I would have checked with him 10 times “where are the dogs””where are the dogs””where are the dogs””where are the dogs”
till he went, “Woops!” So, both guilty, but the dogs pay. Not fair.
Dog show people, make sure to tell him he’s an idiot.
To quote the Post and Courier’s article written by Andrew Knapp: “The affidavits identified the nine as: Money, a 5-month-old Blenheim; Lucinda, an 11-month-old black and tan; Drayton, a 2-year-old Blenheim; Madeline, a 4-year-old ruby; Shelby, a 4-year-old ruby; Katie, a 5-year-old ruby; Butler, an 8- or 9-year-old tricolor; Freddie, an 8- or 9-year-old Blenheim; and Willis, the 8- or 9-year-old Blenheim.
They all had experienced “excessive and unnecessary pain and suffering” before they died, which accounted for the felony charges, the police said.”
This is so dreadfully sad.